There are a few decades in film history that have been as screwed nuts as the 1980s, but to really understand the decade and its movies, it's going to take a couple of someone's who were there for it the first time around.

Drew McQueenie and Scott Weinberg are ready to review every major film of the decade, one month at a time. The look at what worked then, what endoers now, and how it felt to be there when it all went down. Turn back to calendar with us. It's the 80s all over. I'm gonna have to go back to the hotel.

I'm gonna have to go back to the hotel.

I'm gonna have to go back to the hotel. It's the 80 over Magic Johnson. At the Cannes Film Festival and a rare split decision both all that jazz and Kagamusha won the Palm Dior.

Mount St. Helens kept erupting while love canal New York was evacuated in the biggest disaster of them all, Peter Chris quit the band kiss. ["Pretty Little Man's The Last One"] Somehow though we soldered on and here's what we got to see in theaters as a reward in May of 1980. I'm Drew McWinney and as always, I'm joined by my esteemed co-host on the show, Scott Weinberg.

Scott, how are you?

I am joined by my esteemed co-host on the show, Scott Weinberg. Scott, how are you? I am good. I am back from Fantastic Fest and I got of course super sick when I got home but I am 95% better now and I am ready to dive into arguably the finest month of 1980. How was Fantastic Fest overall? I'm super jealous.

Many, many people asked how you were.

It was great. As always, we had the feud, we had the debates, lots of good movies, lots of good food. It was great. This is one of those months that is the reason we wanted to do this podcast in the first place. That's part of the pleasure of this is, yeah, we all know that certain things came out in the 1980s, but until you put it month by month and kind of look at what was coming out

group next to what else was coming out you don't get a real picture of the decade and may of 1980 was amazing. Yeah let's jump right in. I'm going to introduce a film that I know you have a lot to say. I saw it when I was a kid had no idea what what it was, and then 20 years later figured out,

it's a strange, jody foster film called, Carny. What do you do? I'm a waitress. I bet you get a lot of tips. Ha ha, I've been wanting my mail. What? What? Hey, if I had the money for a bus ticket, I'd leave right now. What sounds to me like you ought to be traveling with us?

Both dream, win a prize.

All right, you wanna play again?

It's not also warm this one. There ain't no room in the middle with those guys. Gary Busey, Jody Foster, Robbie Robertson, Karnie. I actually had this confused with another movie. And there were a number of films that were like that where the posters were similar or the titles were similar or the subject matter was close enough that I get confused about which one is which. For the longest time I thought this was the Alan Rudolf film, Rodi. This is instead, this is a Jody Foster, Robbie Robertson, Gary Busey film written and directed by a guy named Robert Kailer. This is a weird, weird little movie. It wants to be sort of a slice of life look at what Carney Life is like. Gary Busy's character is a guy named Frankie who is essentially he's the dunk tank clown and his job is to be the biggest bag of shit he can be to people so that they want to dunk him and they spend more money. He's amazing at it. He can get under anybody's skin instantly. He meets a girl who sees him when she's there with a boyfriend, he ends up fighting the boyfriend, and then she runs away and leaves and goes on the road with him and kind of gets indoctrinated into what Carney life is like. Robbie Robertson from the band is one of the guys who plays one of the main carneys and he sort of serves as our narrator into the world to show us how it all works.

And there's moments in this film where it's kind of slice of life and it's showing you how carney lifestyle works and it's not bad. Other parts of this thing are almost like a romantic mellow drama where there's this weird dynamic tension between bucy and Robertson about sharing girls and it's a really strange movie It doesn't work. I think it's too uneven But it's got a lot of really interesting character so I should cook junior who has obviously been making movie since the 30s plays one of the guys in this you've got people like Meg Foster and Tim Thomason and It's watchable, it's interesting, it doesn't all work, but

it's certainly worth a look.

I know the term you're looking for is Robert Altman Light. I think that's even why I thought it was an Alan Rudolph film is it does have that weird Altman-esque. It wants to be sort of slice of life. Yeah, it does. It's very slice of life, very episodic. The production design is great. get the feel and the smell of the carnival life, it just kind of feels like a strong together

series of events as opposed to a complete cohesive narrative and wherein your Robert Altman you can get away with that not so much when you're Robert Kaler. This is the second jody foster movie we've done on the podcast foxes being the first and I kind of think of Jody Foster at this particular moment the way I think of Michael Jackson in Off the Wall. It's sort of that disco era young 20s. I'm going to try and do stuff that's more adult in his mind. Certainly it feels like the beginning of Jody Foster exploring who she was going to be as a grown up. And And those films, that was a very particular moment for her,

especially for those of us that had grown up with her as like the Disney kid and the girl next door. It's really fascinating to have grown up watching her blossom from a great young actor to never miss a beat and for every kid actor who can't make the leap, there's a lot of them. And then you look at somebody like Jody Foster who's just a natural, she's never not been good.

Say what you want about Foxes and Karney, they're not great films, but they're clearly not just star making conventional films either. They were kind of that low budget studio backed indie vibe that was still coming from the late 70s. If the late 70s carnival lifestyle sounds fascinating to you and You want to see somebody trying to emulate, you know, the multi-character Slice the life stuff that Robert Altman was so good at. Carnie is an interesting relic. I wouldn't call it good film But let's move on because we have a lot of movies this month and we've dedicated more than enough time to Carnie drew The next film is something that I saw way too young I I should not have seen it at a formative age.

It is still one of my all-time favorite Roger Corman productions. For all its pure-ile nature was also directed by a woman, Drew, what's the name of this 1980 camp horror classic? Humanoid's from the deep. Anywhere you run, any place you hide, anytime you stop, they will find you. Doug McClure and the Cal Vic Moral. Dumanoid's from the deep.

This is a pretty strong R.

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